A chance at love
by Fayzgirl
Summary: With squirrelflight love life with the thunderclan leader going stale what will the pretty deputy she-cat do? Includes some made up characters. First ever story. Apologies for any typos or errors. Probably boring and bad but please give it a try


Soft, steady breathing and beating hearts. That's what could be heard, and dustpelt's snoring . Squirrelflight lay on her back in her nest, surrounded by her clanmates.

It was four moons since the big battle, when Firestar had passed away. She shivered at the memory of it, and thought sadly that, though her father had lived a joyous life, he had not died in the peaceful way he had wanted.

"Stop daydreamin' you."

That was one of the rogues.

They had come a moon or two ago, and they had taken clan names recently. But squirrelflight still resented them and called them rogues. Mercydance, the cat who had spoken, was among them. There were seven in total; mercydance, ivypaw, cherryvine, oakenleaf, poisonsong and weaselclaw. The seventh insisted on keeping his rogue name, murdoc. Cherryvine was expecting kits, and claimed that when they were born they would have rogue names.

So, to squirrelflight's disgust, thunderclan's strong but not pure blood was now full of rogue cat blood, some of which have and will have strange names.

Mercydance flicked his tail,"stop daydreamin' I 'ed."

squirrelflight followed him out of the den and spotted bramblestar with his rogue apprentice, ivypaw. She was skipping around the clearing. She was a moon younger than bramblestar but insisted on being apprenticed before gaining the rank of warrior. Squirrelflight spotted the fond expression on bramblestar's face as he watched the she-cat and squirrelflight snarled in jealousy, pushed back the temptation to spit at the apprentice, and trotted over. "Hey bramble."

Ivypaw glared at the deputy through green eyes, her white paws scratching at the ground as if to say: 'game on.'

Squirrelflight nodded at cherryvine. The expecting queen was teaching her how to climb high vertical surfaces, like walls.

Cherryvine tripped on a branch and cried out in pain as blood gushed from her paw. "Ah! Fuck!"

"You must have stepped on something sharp," squirrelflight purred,"go to jayfeather."

Squirrelflight had gotten used to the rogue cats strange twoleg words, which they mainly used when in pain or when they made a mistake. They were called 'swear words', according to weaselclaw.

Squirrelflight hunted sadly, thinking of how her relationship with bramblestar was slowly turning stale. It was all ivypaw's fault...

A squirrel darted out in front of her and squirrelflight yanked it's bushy tail back to her, and pressed the furry creature into the ground, then nipped the back of it's neck with her teeth.

She padded back to camp, into bramblestar's den. There was ivypaw, nuzzling bramblestar and licking his cheek affectionately. Squirrelflight snarled and launched herself at ivypaw, and dug her still-sheathed paws into ivypaw's eyes, biting the she's cats ears and clawing her back. The apprentice bucked her off and then raked her claws down squirrelflight's tail. Bramblestar moved to intercept and shoved squirrelflight aside, then grabbed ivypaw's tail. Ivypaw turned to squirrelflight, and squirrelflight glared up at bramblestar. "We are OVER!"

The leader's face contorted in rage and pain, but he tried to look strong and ignorant as he shrugged it off. "Whatever. Ivypaw is my mate now, anyway. Infact... IvyPATH."

Ivypaw purred,"my warrior ceremony?"

Squirrelflight lay in her den. The warrior ceremony had gone well for the newly named ivypath. Squirrelflight shrugged and suddenly had a thought. It made her shiver. The cat shed had a crush on. But... She couldn't so that to her sister... Could she?

But finally she decides that Crowfeather would soon know that he had more than one thunderclan admirer.

It was the gathering. Crowfeather sat without nightcloud, which was a change.

"Where's your mate?" Squirrelflight asked suspiciously.

"Ill." Crowfeather's one word answer made squirrelflight happy; he obviously didnt care about her. "And we're not mates. We broke up."

"So did me and bramblestar."

Squirrelflight thought she spotted something in crowfeather's eyes. Triumph? Relief?

Squirrelflight. "We need to talk..."

"Yes. We do." Crowfeather's purr made a shiver of joy run down her spine. He is so perfect...

She was deep in thought and didn't hear what he was rambling and stuttering about until he exclaimed sure loudly;

"I love you!"

Squirrelflight blushed. But... Poor leafpool. "I... I do too..." She blushed and retreated behind a bush so no cat would see her crying. Crowfeather followed, and smiled. He sat next to her, then suddenly, without warning, leaned forward and kissed her. Squirrelflight pulled away. It was all happening too fast. Crowfeather just moved closer to her again and kissed, this time his tail across her shoulders. She half-heartedly tried to pull away, but he was fumbling for her, his expression needy. "Come on squirrel..."

"No. I'm not ready yet, crow. Just... It's all happening too fast."

"Sorry..."

No... Don't be." Squirrelflight could see the hurt in crowfeather's eyes as she padded back to the gathering, as onestar called out the names of two new warriors and the cogs in squirrelflight's brain turned slowly, sadly, in the dull moonlight.

"Three healthy kits." Squirrelflight looked at cherryvine's three children with fascination. "What are their names?"

"Umm..." The young queen thought for a moment." 2D for the little grey Tom with the short flat fur."

Despite being about a week old, 2D's fur was neat and smooth, flat down on his tiny body.

Murdoc gazed proudly at his children. "Noodle for the little white kit with the blonde swirls on."

Squirrelflight looked at the last remaining kit; a tiny ginger Tom with blue eyes and white brindle markings. "How about sparky?" Squirrelflight had known a Tom called sparky once, who had been torn to peices by dogs. Like swiftpaw, she recalled. She shook her head to clear her head of the story her mum had told her.

Murdoc nodded,"okay. Sparky."

Squirrelflight purred,"want to go for a walk, murdoc?"

Murdoc nodded.

It was late evening, a day after the gathering. Squirrelflight walked with murdoc until her legs were sore and she was sleepy. It was a long walk back to camp.

"How about we make a best out here, and just go back in the morning."

Squirrelflight was too tired to argue, and lay down in the makeshift nest they soon scooped together. Murdoc curled around her, his warm body heating her shivering one.

"We can't tell anyone, okay?"

Squirrelflight was sitting with crowfeather a moon later. Her belly was slightly swollen. She had just told him she was expecting his kits.

"Okay."

Squirrelflight watched his excited face turn solemn as he agreed.

2D, sparky and noodle were now a moon old, and squirrelflight could hear them nearby."sounds like they've snuck out of camp. I've got to go.."

He left just as noodle appeared."hallo squirrel!"

Squirrelflight escorted the three kits back to camp, and murdoc ran over. "You smell of windclan, squirrel!"

Damn! Squirrelflight cursed as she realised she'd forgotten to wash the scent away. Murdoc shrugged,"must've accidentally crossed the border."

"Aaaaaaaa!"

Squirrelflight cried out in pain as pain exploded in her stomach. Contractions.

She was watching her swollen stomach spasm as she lay in her best with briarlight and jayfeather standing either side.

"Oooooooocccchhhhh!"

The first kit slid into the nest.

An hour later squirrelflight sat propped up in her nest with three kits. One of them was dark ginger, one was black with a white paw (both of which were obviously the kits of squirrelflight and crowfeather) but the third one, the biggest one of all, had the same black-and-tan markings as murdoc.

"How could you?!" Crowfeather's wail sounded both alarmed and hurt to squirrelflight but she knew what fuelled his cries was rage. "You... Traitor. You unloyal fiend!"

Squirrelflight sobbed,"I love you. It was a mistake. I love YOU."

Cherryvine had broken up with murdoc and murdoc was now constantly flirting with squirrelflight, much to the she-cat's disgust.

Squirrelflight sighed,"I swear."

Crowfeather nodded,"sorry for shouting..."

Squirrelflight turned away and padded back to camp, calling goodbye to the windclan warrior. She padded to a patch of nettles and sat down infront of them, in the shade. Murdoc trotted over and say beside her. From where the rest of her clanmates were sitting, she could not be seen. Nether could murdoc.

Murdoc leaned in close and kissed squirrelflight. At frost she resisted but then let him. Then she eventually stood p and padded into the woods, but he followed.

He sat down beside her, out of sight. Then he kissed her. She struggled but he just pinned her down. Eventually she gave in and let him.

Murdoc stuck close to squirrelflight, and he was beginning to remind her a bit of Ashfur. So handsome but too needy. Too quick to react. Too... Perfect. Her relationship with crowfeather had ended abruptly and now she knew she was just bad luck. All the times she'd tried to have kits with bramblestar. The couple had both wanted so badly to have kits but only once they'd broken up had squirrelflight been able to have children.

Oh starclan, why me?

Squirrelflight suddenly crie. She cried and cried and felt she'd never stop.

She was relieved when it happened. Too much time spent shyly talking, trying to hide the need.

Murdoc asked squirrelflight to be her mate.

And, knowing now the love of her life, squirrelflight had formally given her answer via cherryvine, much to murdoc's dismay.

So in the moonlight, while eyes glowed like little moonlight and darkness kept it's strong hold on the forest, cherryvine told murdoc.

"Her answer is..."

And squirrelflight knew now. That it is done. And still she recalls decided to say...

"No."

For only bramblestar could make her laugh and cry and shout and sigh in that way that made her world spin around. She needed his love and time just as much as she needed to eat and to sleep.

And in the glory of the morning light, bramblestar and squirrelflight became mates.

Leader and deputy.

Not even starclan could separate them from their now eternal love.


End file.
